


Duke

by imalright



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:00:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25387183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imalright/pseuds/imalright
Summary: Sylvain grins before his closest, dearest friends.“So! This is Duke —”“That’s a stupid fucking name,” Felix mumbles.“Um, rude,” Sylvain laughs before continuing. “Anyway! This is Duke, and he’s my dog now.”“You didn’t think that maybe, maybe you should’ve asked?” Ingrid huffs.Sylvain gets a dog. His most beloved, supportive, and closest friends have opinions.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Sylvain Jose Gautier, Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Sylvain Jose Gautier, Ingrid Brandl Galatea & Sylvain Jose Gautier, Sylvain Jose Gautier & Dedue Molinaro
Comments: 14
Kudos: 66





	Duke

**Author's Note:**

> i had the opportunity to write this for sincerity, a sylvain zine. thank you!!

Sylvain grins before his closest, dearest friends.

“So! This is Duke —”

“That’s a stupid fucking name,” Felix mumbles.

“Um, rude,” Sylvain laughs before continuing. “Anyway! This is Duke, and he’s my dog now.”

“You didn’t think that maybe, _maybe_ you should’ve asked?” Ingrid huffs.

“Hm? Why would I do that? He’s my dog, not yours.”

“Sylvain,” Dedue says, even and unwavering, “We live with you.”

“And it _reeks,”_ Felix snaps.

“You don’t smell too good yourself, champ,” Sylvain says. Dimitri speaks before Felix has the chance to murder him.

“I really do wish you’d said something,” Dimitri says, and then he sighs. “But a dog is a big responsibility, and you’ve already committed. I suppose there’s nothing we can do.”

“There’s plenty we can do!” Felix says.

“Yeah, you can pet him!” Sylvain says proudly. He looks down at Duke. Slobber is dripping from his mouth onto the hardwood floor. “He loves people.”

Duke smiles.

“I’d rather not.”

“I think what Felix is trying to say,” Dedue interjects, “Is that Duke is kind of gross.”

“Well that’s rude!”

“Sylvain,” Felix says, his voice dangerously low.

“Hm?”

“I can’t believe you.”

“I can,” Ingrid grunts.

“Cool!” Sylvain nods. “Welcome to the family, Duke!”

* * *

It’s Sylvain’s day off. Finally. He’s sprawled out over their giant couch with Duke laying over him, watching musicals one after another. It’s a great bonding activity. A lovely Saturday.

“How are things going in there?” Sylvain calls to the kitchen.

“Everything is just fine,” Dedue says. He doesn’t bother to raise his voice.

A new song starts. Sylvain stuffs a handful of popcorn in his face and lets Duke eat the pieces that fall on his chest and on the couch. This whole dog thing is pretty great.

“I saw that,” Dedue says.

“Let a man live!”

“Not you.” Dedue’s sigh is clearly audible from the kitchen. “Felix. Get out of here”

“It’s my kitchen, too,” Felix snaps froms somewhere unseen.

Sylvain muffles a snort on the top of Duke’s head.

“There will be plenty of food for everyone. You do not need to sneak bites,” Dedue says.

“Whatever.”

Sylvain turns his attention to Felix prowling out of the kitchen and looking over his shoulder to pinpoint Dedue’s defenses and weak spots. They play this game every weekend; Dedue cooks dinner for the house, Felix gets impatient, it’s the cycle of friendship and they’re all just curves on the perimeter. Duke snaps his head up up and follows Sylvain’s line of sight. He stands up, crushes Sylvain a little closer to death, and paws over to help Felix.

Duke loves helping people.

“Go away, dog,” Felix snaps. Duke’s entire body wags. He rolls his eyes.

“Aw, he likes you!”

“Call your dog over.”

“I can’t, look how happy he is!”

Felix doesn’t deem this worth responding to.

Thoroughly bored, Sylvain turns his attention back to the TV. A ginger babe sings on top of a giant elephant building or whatever. The song’s beautiful. He’d like to get tickets sometime.

“What are you watching?” Felix asks.

He gestures to the TV and barely spares Felix a glance. “What do you have?” he asks.

Felix is carrying a plate full of something. “Nothing,” he says. It’s definitely not nothing. In fact, when he sets his plate down on the low coffee table in front of them, it’s definitely filled with mysterious food, mysteriously similar to the type of food Dedue was cooking. How mysterious.

“Okay,” Sylvain says.

Felix walks away. Sylvain watches the end of the scene.

“AAAAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!” Felix screams in tandem with the song.

It really is incredible, he thinks, how perfect Felix’s timing can be.

“You should get a vocal coach,” Sylvain suggests.

“YOU SHOULD GET YOUR DOG!”

Suddenly very aware of the Dukeless couch, Sylvain looks around. There he is, on the floor next to the coffee table, being perfectly calm. “What’s the problem?”

Felix storms back into the room. “THE PROBLEM IS YOUR DOG ATE MY FOOD!”

“Hm? I thought you said there was nothing on your plate?”

At least, there’s nothing on his plate _now._

Felix screams in anguish one final time and storms out of the room. Dedue pops his head out of the kitchen and looks from Duke, to Sylvain, and back to Duke.

“Good boy,” he says.

* * *

Dimitri pushes Sylvain’s generous offering away.

“No thank you,” he says, gently yet firmly. Sylvain pouts and eats the spoonful of ice cream himself.

“Sorry,” he says around his full mouth, “I don’t know how else to help.”

Dimitri sighs, long and suffering. “There is no help. I have to deal with it until it ends.”

Sylvain nods. “Sounds rough.”

“Yes, I suppose it’s —”

 _“Ruff!”_ ruffs Duke.

“Ah,” Dimitri says, “I suppose he’s correct.”

“He’s always correct!” Sylvain puts his ice cream down and gets his fingers into Duke’s haunches and _scratch scratch scratches!_ “He knows what he’s talking about! You should listen to him.”

Dimitri chuckles a bit; it’s the first smile Sylvain’s seen from him all day. “Duke, what do you suggest I do?” he asks.

Duke licks Dimitri directly over his eyepatch and does not stop.

“Whoa!” Sylvain leaps to action, pulling Duke away from Dimitri’s face and checking the damage, “Are you okay? Do you need to wash that thing?”

Dimitri’s face instantly morphs from shock to sheer joy. The smile that brightens up his face and crinkles up his eyes is enough for Sylvain to let Duke go in surprise and Duke goes back to licking all over Dimitri’s face.

“That can’t be sanitary,” he says, eyeing a line of slobber artfully draped across his eyepatch going from his eyebrow to his nose.

Dimitri doesn’t respond; instead, he holds Duke in an enormous hug and continues laughing.

* * *

Sylvain knows he looks good. He knows Duke looks good. They’re a good looking pair, walking side-by-side through a lightly wooded park, breathing in the crisp air and checking out the cute babes. Duke has been an excellent chick magnet, the perfect pick-up line, the easiest ice-breaker that Sylvain barely even has to work for. What’s some warm dog shit compared to the warm, warm hearts of strangers?

“Oh, I _love_ him,” one such stranger says this sharp autumn morning with her autumn-colored hair and her autumn-colored jacket. “What’s his name?”

“His name’s Duke,” Sylvain says proudly, “He runs things around here, and he _loves_ making new friends.”

Miss Autumn smiles — charming — and kneels down to talk to his dog. “He’s a _babe.”_

Sylvain winks. She doesn’t see, but he knows she can hear it in his voice. “That makes three of us.”

She laughs and he lets it wash over him like the warm sunshine, his prize for stepping outside and meeting such a beautiful woman on such a beautiful day. A sign of victory to come. A bringer of —

Duke goes still.

Miss Autumn turns her head to look at what he’s looking at. Sylvain does the same.

Sylvain goes still.

A familiar figure is walking across the park, engrossed in her phone and eating a burrito. It’s an admirable habit and a familiar one; Duke has seen Ingrid.

“Oh no,” Sylvain says.

“Oh dear,” Miss Autumn laughs.

 _“Ruff!”_ is Duke’s only warning before he’s off, dragging Sylvain behind, through the park and a flock of pigeons, all the way up to Ingrid who catches sight of them at the last minute and drops her phone in laughter.

“Good boy, Duke!” she cheers. Ah, she’s seen Miss Autumn laughing at him. “You did such a good job!”

“No he didn’t,” Sylvain grumbles.

“Oh, he did a _great_ job.”

* * *

“Alright! Pile on!”

Sylvain holds an enormous bowl of popcorn in the air while everyone scrambles to fit on the couch around him; Felix squeezes himself to his left next to the armrest, Ingrid cozies up on his right, Dimitri’s pressed against her on the other side and Dedue is squeezed beneath Dimitri and the armrest at the other end.

“Great job, everyone!” he announces before he hands Ingrid the bowl. She’ll eat the entire thing, anyway. “Are we ready for movie night?”

A _yes!_ of varying enthusiasm echoes up and down the couch. He flips the TV on and settles in, arms up and around his neighboring friends and relaxes. They don’t get these nights often anymore, he’ll take them when he can get them.

They barely get into the opening scene when there’s a loud, insistent whine.

“No,” Felix says.

“Hm?” Sylvain responds.

“Your stupid dog wants to climb up here.”

“Oh!” Sylvain finally sees his goober of a dog begging from just behind Felix’s legs. “You wanna come up here, baby?”

He wiggles.

“Do you wanna?”

“Sylvain,” Ingrid groans.

“You wanna come up?”

He wiggles more.

“Come on, baby!”

Everybody except Sylvain shouts, but nobody pushes Duke off and he climbs across all their laps, nice and heavy, and lays down across every single one of them. Felix’s lip curls at the string of drool on his jeans and Dedue holds his tail in place to stop it from smacking him in the face. Ingrid carefully sets her bowl of popcorn on Duke’s back and Sylvain scratches under his collar.

“Aw, we’re all a little family!” he coos.

“Speak for yourself and your dog,” Felix mumbles.

“Um, Sylvain?” Dedue asks.

“Hm?” he turns his head, “Yes, Dedue?”

“What did Duke have for dinner?”

Sylvain considers this question. “Dog food, why?”

And then it hits him.

“Oh.”

_“Sylvain.”_

“Look, Felix, I don’t control my dog’s ass!”

“This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” Ingrid whispers. Sylvain doesn’t think that’s true.

“What’s the problem?” Dimitri asks, looking around at everyone wide-eyed.

“Duke farted,” Felix spits out.

“Oh, did he? I don’t smell anything.”

“You _never_ smell anything,” Ingrid says, shoving him lightly with her elbow.

“Guys, guys!” Sylvain holds his hands up placatingly, “Can’t we all just get along?”

_“No.”_

“Can’t all of us except Felix just get along?”

“I like him here,” Dimitri decides.

“Then it’s settled,” Sylvain says, “He’s staying.”

**Author's Note:**

> wow i feel like i wrote this 20 years ago
> 
> [twitter](http://www.twitter.com/punchyfakegamer)


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